Changing times force papers to find new ways to do business

Businesses make decisions all the time based on their bottom line. Without financial health, a business can quickly find itself in trouble.

And publicly-traded companies face even more pressure of answering to their shareholders. Add today’s pressures of inflation and lack of workers, and businesses find themselves making tough decisions almost daily.

Kroger’s and Menard’s recently made the decision to drop their insertions into local papers around the country, including the Daily American Republic and other Rust family-owned papers in Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee and Indiana.

The amount of money lost because of this decision means local, small-town, community newspapers will need to find a way to make up some of that lost revenue or cut expenses. It’s not something we’re unaccustomed to doing.

Since the advent of the internet and Facebook (and other social media) we’ve been forced to be creative and find new ways of doing business. We're proud of all the employees at our 12 newspapers who do this on a daily basis. Now, we must do it again.

Enough about the newspaper and what the decision by Kroger’s and Menard’s means to us. What does it mean for our readers?

The two companies are forcing people — whether they want to or not — to download an app on their smart phone (assuming they have a smart phone) each week for the weekly specials. The internet isn’t this new thing that just popped up. It’s been around long enough for the majority of Americans to understand how it works. But there are still plenty of people who don’t have a smart phone or simply want to hold the insertion in their hands while shopping.

If a person’s phone is not updated enough or fancy enough, they miss out on the Kroger discounts. A lot of folks who may not be tech-savvy or who may not be able to afford the costs of a smartphone or internet lose out and are forced to shop elsewhere or pay more just because they don’t have the latest technology.

This is sad and we expected better of the Kroger corporation. It’s bad enough they don’t get their weekly ad in print, now they lose even more when shopping at Kroger if they aren’t ‘updated’ or digital enough. The elderly and the less fortunate are the ones paying the price.

The point is simple. Not everyone is digital savvy. Not everyone can work a smart phone. Not everyone can afford a smart phone. Not everyone is connected to the digital world.

We reached out to Kroger’s and Menard’s and asked how we could help them through their financial decisions. How can we help ease some of their expenses, yet our readers aren’t left without something they want.

We’re still waiting on a response, but it’s been over a month.

Another local business — Hobby Lobby — made the decision a couple of years ago to stop advertising. The reason they gave us: Because we wouldn’t continue to slash our rates.

We did cut our rates by a good percentage, if they continued to advertise at their current volume. They wanted us to cut even more. If we had agreed, it would have been close to 80% off.

Did Hobby Lobby think of its customers when making this decision, or did they just get mad and take their ball and go home?

By no means should local buyers stop shopping at these three businesses. They employ lots of local people and pay taxes to our city, county and schools. We need that to continue.

But we do ask if you feel strongly about everyone having access to sale ads and not just those who live on their phones, please share your thoughts with those businesses.

And continue to support locally owned businesses. They are the backbone of our communities. They are the ones Little League teams, Girl Scouts, students, and other organizations turn to for donations. They are owned by members of our community and understand what loyalty is about.

We also ask that you continue (or consider) to support the newspaper. For us to continue to provide local coverage (news, sports, advertising, and other areas of our communities) we must be financially sound as well. We rely on our readers to purchase the paper or buy an online subscription, and for local businesses to advertise with us.

We have a lot of good, local people working hard every day to produce the DAR. But we also must pay our bills in order for that to happen.

Thank you for reading the DAR. You are important to us!